Here’s an interesting twist to bypassing iTunes movie limitations — offer a free app and allow users to stream the movie from within. This is exactly what Warner Brothers is doing with two of their more popular films, The Dark Knight and Inception. For the 23 countries who can’t purchase either movie directly from iTunes, you now have a fix.
We have to give Warner Brothers credit — the Dark Knight and Inception movie apps are quite clever. Both apps, available in 35 countries, are free and offer five minute previews of both films, along with games, trivia, and extra material to browse. Ironically, 23 of the 35 countries which can download the app are not able to download either movie directly from iTunes.
Enter, the movie apps. As you can see from the screen shot above, there are two options inside the apps: play (streaming) or download. If your Internet connection permits, you’ll be watching either movie on your iPhone or iPad in no time. If you decide to purchase the films, The Dark Knight will set you back $9.99 and Inception, $11.99 (in the US).
Overseas prices range from as little as $7.99 for “The Dark Knight” in some European countries to $23.99 for “Inception” in New Zealand. In China and Russia, “Inception” costs $18.99.
The price isn’t exactly stellar, but at least 23 countries now have a solution to their iTunes woes. Anyone planning on downloading either film with the app? Feel free to sound off. We expect other movie studios to follow suit with their own streaming movie apps shortly.
